


Bandages

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 15:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10722354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: Betty and Veronica have gotten into a minor car accident in which they were run off the road by a mysterious vehicle behind Veronica’s apartment building and Jughead rushes over there to check on them





	Bandages

Jughead flew through the front door of Veronica and Hermione Lodge’s apartment, the hinges bending so far back that they screeched in protest as they hit the door stopper with a bang. 

“Veronica, are you guys okay?” Jughead asked, his voice full of panic as he frantically searched the room for any sign of trouble. “What happened? Where’s Betty?”

“We’re fine, Jughead,” Veronica assured him, dropping the icepack from her elbow and crossing the room to stand adjacent to his position in front of the couch. “We’re just a little scraped up. Betty is-”

Before she could finish her sentence, a bruised-up Betty emerged from the restroom, her tear-streaked face red and puffy from the trauma of the evening.

“Betty!” Jughead sprinted across the room to take her face in his hands, turning her cheeks this way and that as he inspected every inch of it for scrapes that weren’t visible on the surface. 

“Juggie,” Betty whispered, her voice barely audible as she struggled to speak over her bruised lip. “I’m okay, I swear. It looks way worse than it is.” 

“It looks like there’s a cut the size of the iceberg that sank the titanic currently seeping blood from your forehead,” Jughead pointed out, his fingers hovering over the wound as he examined the severity of the cut. 

“A tad dramatic - but yeah, that about sums up the situation,” Betty muttered, her nails digging into her arm as Jughead poked the bruise in just the wrong spot. “Ow!”

“Sorry,” Jughead mumbled, tugging on her elbow as a way to lead her to the other side of the apartment where the kitchen was located. “Here, come into the light so I can get a better look at it.” 

Jughead tilted Betty’s chin back and forth as he tried to find the angle that would allow him to see the damage of the scrape in the best light.

“It doesn’t look that deep, but we should still get it checked out just in case,” Jughead explained, already pulling out Archie’s car keys from his back pocket so they could head to the hospital. 

“No doctors,” Betty insisted, her forehead wrinkling in concern as she placed a hand over the keys he held in his hand. 

“Bets, come on you could have a concussion or-” 

“Juggie, I just-” Betty sighed, taking a step away from Jughead to lean over the counter, her gaze locking on the detailed speckles in the marble of the countertop. “Can we just sit here for a few minutes? You and me?” 

“I don’t know, Bets, I’m really worried that you’ve lost too much blood and-”

“Please,” Betty begged, her eyes pleading with him as she pushed herself off the counter to take Jughead’s hands in her own. “I was really scared tonight and all I could think about the entire time was getting through it just to spend a few moments alone with you. Please, give me that right now. And we can deal with the rest later.” 

Jughead sighed after a moment, his fingers pushing back a loose strand of hair that had fallen from her ponytail, away from her face. “Well how can I say no to that?” 

“You can’t,” Betty smirked, a look of accomplishment over this victory evident in her expression. “It’s physically impossible.” 

“You cruel, cruel, woman,” Jughead muttered, one eyebrow raising in amusement as he watched Betty triumphantly cross her arms in front of her chest. 

“That’s me,” Betty shrugged, her smile growing even wider, but then immediately fading as the pain began to prickle all over her lips and forehead. 

“Okay, you win,” Jughead conceded. “But you at least have to let me put a bandage over that. I think there’s a first-aid kit in Veronica’s medicine cabinet.” 

“Deal,” Betty agreed, stepping out of the way so that Jughead could leave the kitchen and head to Veronica’s bathroom. 

A few minutes later, Jughead was unraveling the gauze that he found stashed at the bottom of the little red trunk Hermione Lodge had stocked full with medical supplies that she kept in the guest bathroom. Setting it to the side of the counter, Jughead picked up the tube of antibiotic ointment and began applying it to the cotton swab before holding it over Betty’s wound.

“This might sting a little,” he warned, adjusting the swab in his hand and gently placing a hand on Betty’s cheek. 

“Mother of - ow!” Betty shrieked, jerking away from his touch as her hand flew up to shield her wound. “Juggie!” 

“Bets, I haven’t even touched you yet,” Jughead informed her, lifting up the untouched bandage and cotton swab as proof. 

“I know, but I’m consciously aware that you’re about to and the anticipation of that is making me all jumpy,” Betty explained, squirming uncomfortably in her seat on the stool before reluctantly turning back to Jughead. 

“It’s okay, just take a deep breath - good, now close your eyes and focus on my voice,” Jughead instructed in a soothing voice. Once Betty had done as she was told, Jughead gently smoothed back her hair and began to dress the wound. “Think about the day we took a stroll in that little park off the highway - the one with the fairy lights wrapped around the gazebo and the picnic tables overlooking the duck pond. You were so worried about that big history test - the one that made Veronica resort to emptying all the chocolate bars out of the vending machine and eating every single one of them in the stall of the girls bathroom. Do you remember?” 

“Of course I remember,” Betty assured him, soft laughter escaping her lips as the memory of that day flashed across her mind. “She wouldn’t stop complaining about the amount of pimples that kept popping up on her face all week. I thought I was going to have to rob a dermatologist’s office for all the best acne cream just to keep her mind at ease.” 

“Yeah, and you almost did,” Jughead added, lightly rubbing Betty’s scrape with the cotton swab and setting it on the counter. “Anyway, to make you feel better I took you to that gazebo and I waited for the sun to set and the lights to flicker on in the dim glow of twilight and I told you that story about the time my parents took us to the zoo for Jellybean’s fourth birthday.”

Betty smiled at the memory, her eyes still shut tight as Jughead finished cutting a piece of gauze and gently placed it over her wound. “All she wanted to do the entire day was stand around the giraffe exhibit feeding them treats and pretending that she was one of them.” 

“Up until my dad bought her the biggest ice cream cone he could find,” Jughead finished for her, securing the gauze into place and turning in his stool to put the materials back into the first-aide kit. 

“And she got so close to the fence that the giraffe just scooped it right out of her hand,” Betty continued, her lips curling into an amused smile as she recalled the ending to the story that she had heard a dozen times. 

“Cone and all,” Jughead concluded, shutting the lid of the first-aide kit and securing the latch. “She wouldn’t stop crying. I thought that she was going to make herself sick until-” 

“Until you ran all the way back to the ice cream vendor to buy her one of each flavor,” Betty recalled, her eyes opening ever-so-slightly as they struggled to find his gaze. “I love that story.” 

“I know,” Jughead breathed, reaching up to run his thumb gently along the apple of her cheek to wipe away an unwanted smudge of mascara. “And do you know why I told it to you that day? Why I chose that one specific moment?”

“To distract me,” Betty answered. “So that I’d stop worrying about that stupid history test and focus on being in the moment with you.” 

“Yeah, and it worked,” Jughead informed her, his finger moving up the side of her cheek to rest near her freshly-bandaged cut on her forehead. “Kinda like now.” 

Betty’s gaze followed his arm, causing her own hand to fly up to feel the gauze resting comfortably on her forehead.

“You put the bandage on,” Betty pointed out. “I didn’t feel a thing.” 

“Exactly,” Jughead whispered, leaning forward to flick the tip of her nose playfully with his index finger before hopping off the stool and scooping the first-aide kit into his hands. 

“You’re good,” Betty complimented him, taking a cautious step off the stool to join him in front of the refrigerator. “I like when you take care of me like this.”

“I like it too,” Jughead admitted, taking her hand in his and smiling down at her. “But don’t make a habit of this whole getting hurt business. That, I’m not too fond of.” 

“I’ll try my best,” Betty promised, and Jughead turned on his heel to head back to the bathroom to return the medical supplies. “Hey, Juggie?”

Jughead turned back to raise a curious eyebrow in her direction. “Yeah, Bets?”

“Thank you,” Betty whispered, any thoughts of the car accident that she and Veronica had endured only a few hours ago already -almost- forgotten. “You always know how to make me feel better.” 

“I could say the same about you,” Jughead admitted. “Although, all I have to do is see that smile of yours and I forget that anything else - or anyone else - exists beyond Betty Cooper. I don’t know what I would have done if I would have lost you tonight.” 

Betty quickly crossed the kitchen to throw her arms around him, burying her head in his chest as she let the warmth of his body wash over her.

“You don’t ever have to worry about that again, okay?” Betty assured him, turning her head slightly to meet his eyes. “I promise.”


End file.
